Agile Austin inauguration was a huge success
The first meeting happened last 4th of September, and you can get more details at the Agile Austin website.
In the first talk, Jim Van Riper, VP of Product Planning and Development from Troux Technologies, shared the inside story of adopting Agile in a fast changing environment.
Jim's thinking about Product Management is also interesting: they should always be "Pigs" (in Scrum parlance), not "Chickens". In my experience with MSF in general, and MSF Agile in particular, is that it solves this lack of Product Management involvement by having the Product Manager as someone from the customer side, and as an integral part of the team at all times, not just when interfacing with project managers.
One of his quotes ("turn over is good for you") called my attention when he explained that most of those who could not adapt to Agile chose to leave - and that the company was better after that. Jeffrey Palermo's blog has more on the meeting.
I don't think that even the organizers were expecting to see such a full house with people standing inside and outside of the conference room. This tells a lot about the need for such a community in Austin.
Congratulations to all who put this together, among them Scott Killen and Jeffrey Palermo.
